CONTACT

[mummylou85]

Another question about contact.

if a father has no parental responsibilities and not on birth certificate how much contact at most would courts give the father. I know he could apply for parental responsibility.
what if for instance they give every other weekend, a school night and half holidays. obviously child benefit would go to him. now he have never paid matienance and we due to move soon to our own place. my daughter would be so upset going but and I said before he thinks he is entitled to child benefit even though my daughter dont so much get a xmas present or bday present. it worries me that what ever judge orders could affect us financially. if he spent it on my daughter fair enough but it be on himself. if he did get some child benefit how much?

i'm worrying over nothing but hate having courts over my head and tip toeing around him incase he wants to go through the courts. I was lucky first time but doubt I will be next time.

If the father wants to make an application to court, he would need permission to make the application and part of the application should be asking for Parental responsibility.

If the father gets half the weekends and holidays, and you are getting the child benefit, then you continue to get it. If you want to share that money, it's up to you. The person who cares for the child most of the time gets the benefit. If the child spends more time with the other parent for an average over 17 weeks (don't quote me on 17 weeks, it might be a bit less) then that parent can apply for the child benefit. The number of nights a week is the way they calculate who cares for the child the most. The only people who share child benefit, if they do, are the ones who share the care of the children 50/50. Most other people don't share the money.

The court can make any order for contact. It depends on what the father is asking for. I know of a father who wants the child for 5 hours a month with an option of progressing the contact to a weekend a month. The father has odd work commitments and is happy with that contact (apparently).

If you can arrange things between you and without the courts being involved, that's the easier and most flexible. Don't be afraid of court. It's a daunting process but most people survive. If you want to do anything, keep a detailed diary of as much as you can. Often you can remember doing one thing at the same time as something you didn't record. That diary will be invaluable if the bloke takes you to court.

The contact issue can be debated. Depending on the age of the child and what you and he can agree to. One key point here is to not agree to something that you don't agree with. Obviously you need a good reason to oppose the agreement. If you have good reason, then use that as your argument. While arguing, keep in mind that the child has the right to grow up knowing both parent's.

N1, can I ask you please how you are so aware of these facts?
I'm also interested in what the OP is asking as I'm sure that Dd's dad will go the court route too.

Does the child benefit go to you now?

If it does then NOTHING (not even a court order) can force it to be changed. If he is granted contact as you have described above then a court would not even think of taking the child benefit off you to give to him. Even on 50/50 they would leave it where it was.

I battled over everything with my ex because she waved anything she could at me while I was paying for a solicitor - including child benefit. I had to use the freedom of information act to get the instructions and guidelines to understand the process of filling in an application for child benefit to understand how the process worked. (I still have that info somewhere)

Then I am fairly familiar with some of the court process. Each case is unique, but there are general terms that can be applied to the argument which if understood helps with agreeing or disagreeing to a contact arrangement.

The OP, from what I can figure, wants to know where the father stands legally if he has no PR.

To know how the child benefit payment works and it it can be shared.

What contact a court is likely to order when an application for a contact order goes to court.

KingCanuteIAm is correct. The child benefit gets paid to one person. The receiver would have to agree to share it.

I said that in a 50/50 care arrangement that some people choose to share the benefit as well, though that money sharing won't be - by order of the court.

My apology if I didn't explain well enough.

THANK YOU. I worried whether he would apply behind my back. i'm probably stressing over anything. If he was a good father then fair enough. at contacts I take drinks and snacks with me. she is 3 now and he have never cooked one meal for her in her life or even give biscuit or packet of sweets. she don't get birthday presents.xmas presents. a birthday card his nan give he stole £10 out of. now he have lost his jobe he is holding courts over my head and if he gets awarded loads contact he can apply for child benefit as it's unfair I have it. even though every penny and more. I go without for my daughter but he really begrudges it. i've never had a penny maitenance off him. Which really bothers me x

He sounds like a prize twat. I don't think you have anything to worry about: if he is not on the birth cert and pays no maintenance there is no way he's going to get the child benefit awarded to him just because he's decided he wants it. Tosspot men frequently try to tell their XWs that they will take them to court as a way of intimidating the woman into submitting: get the facts and then you can tell him to get stuffed.

He would have to show he had more than 50/50 care and was considered the resident parent for them to swap it.

Even if he did apply for it behind your back they would contact you and ask for details of contact with each parent and want to see that you confirmed he had majority of care. However they may well stop the benefit to you while it is being sorted out.

Also be aware that the more than 50/50 care has to be shown to carry on for several consecutive weeks. I can't remember off hand, I thought it was 11 weeks, someone above mentioned 17 weeks. It is in that kind of region. So even if he had the children for 3 weeks of the 6 week summer holiday that wouldn't be long enough to change the Child Benefit to your ex. I know this because my neighbour tried to get the child benefit while the children stayed with her in the summer holidays but they said the children were not ordinarily resident with her and the length of time she had had majority care did not qualify for a change.

He's trying to scare you. Don't let it work. If you are in doubt go and speak to your local CAB.

If he's not paying any maintenance the court will more than likely take a dim view of his trying to get parental responsibility. PR is about responsibility, emotional and financial. He is failing to do that willingly, why would the court enforce something he is failing to do already!?

gillybean, they would not do anything at all, they certainly won't stop it. If you apply for a child when there is a current claim running then they will write back to you saying something along the lines of "Our records show there is a claim in place for (Xchild). In order to process your claim you will need to provide us a signed statement from the current claiment stating that they wish the claim to be transfered into your name"

If it were tax credit then you would be right, but not child benefit.

Also, PR is no longer seen to be linked to maintainence - the same as contact. You do not have to pay to have rights over your child. You are right that a court will take a dim view though.